Faster Forward: July 22, 2007 - July 28, 2007

I don't usually play theater critic on this blog, but I had a thought-provoking Saturday evening last weekend watching a set of three short plays, called "This Digital Life: BASIC Instructions for Coping with the 21st Century". Tomorrow afternoon, that show -- part of this year's Capital Fringe Festival --...

To victims of modern business computing, the thought of a day dedicated to the IT department might seem outlandish, if not akin to North Koreans being obliged to celebrate Kim Jong-Il's birthday. But there is a real System Administrator Appreciation Day, it happens today, and the basic idea has some...

I can't lie: Today's column was not exactly the most difficult work I've had this year. My testing of the Jitterbug voice-only cell phone and Hewlett-Packard and Presto's Printing Mailbox service amounted to this: * Pick up phone. Press buttons. Talk. * Send e-mail. Wait for it to emerge from...

After months of knowing the One Laptop Per Child project's XO computer only through pictures and blog postings, I got to spend an hour or so playing with a couple of test units last Thursday -- courtesy of two D.C.-area residents involved with this effort, OLPC News editor Wayan Vota...

Today, TiVo announced the debut of a high-definition digital video recorder it should have shipped two years ago. The new TiVo HD--shipping in August--can record high-def programs off the air and, with the help of a CableCard, from digital cable services. And it sells for $300, less than half the...

An upcoming sale of a chunk of the wireless spectrum -- the kind of thing that ordinarily excites few people besides venture capitalists and telecom lawyers -- just might upend the wireless-phone business. This is a bigger sale than most. It will dispose of the spectrum now used by many...